The holiday season is a magical time of year. As the days get shorter and the weather gets colder, there’s just something special about bundling up with a mug of hot cocoa and watching classic Christmas movies.
But beyond the twinkling lights and festive atmospheres, December is also about spending meaningful time with friends and family. And giving back to your community.
That’s why advent calendars are such a beloved tradition. They’re a fun, creative way to count down the days until Christmas.
But gone are the days of tiny chocolate pieces and paper calendars. Virtual advent calendars are all the rage in 2024.
What is a Virtual Advent Calendar?
A virtual advent calendar works a lot like a traditional advent calendar. Except instead of opening little doors, you click on digital windows.
Behind each window is a holiday surprise. This might be:
- A photo
- A video
- A recipe
- A discount code
- An audio message
- An inspirational quote
- Handmade digital art
Or really, anything you can dream up.
The key is that every day leading up to Christmas, you reveal something new.
This creates intrigue and a sense of anticipation. It also gives you a reason to connect with your audience daily in December.
So how do you actually make one of these digital December countdowns? I’m glad you asked!
In this complete guide, as a professional custom advent calendar printing manufacturer, I’ll show you step-by-step how to create a virtual advent calendar from scratch.
Why Launch a Virtual Advent Calendar?
But first, why even bother creating one of these digital Christmas countdowns?
Connect with Your Audience
The holiday season is the perfect time to engage with your existing audience in a more meaningful way.
An advent calendar gives you a reason to connect daily. You can use it to:
- Share memories
- Offer discounts and deals
- Spotlight different products
- Give personalized gift recommendations
- Get creative with DIY tutorials
Not only is this a special treat for your current customers and subscribers, but it can organically pull in new ones too.
Friends and family members who see your virtual advent calendar may become interested in your brand for the first time.
Boost Brand Awareness
Speaking of organic reach, virtual advent calendars are fantastic for getting the word out about your business.
They tick all the boxes that you need for high social engagement:
Visually appealing. Especially if you include photos and videos.
Interactive. People will be eager to see what’s behind each digital door every morning.
Builds anticipation. Creating mini-cliffs each day keeps your audience hooked.
This is marketing catnip when it comes to getting shares, likes, and overall visibility.
How to Make Your Own Virtual Advent Calendar
Alright, let’s get down to brass tacks.
Here is the step-by-step process for rolling out your very own virtual advent calendar this Christmas season.
Step 1: Pick Your Digital Advent Calendar Platform or Tool
The first thing you need to do is select what software you’ll use to actually build your calendar.
You have a few different options here:
Use an Advent Calendar Website Builder
There are a handful of sites specifically designed for easily whipping up digital advent calendars:
With these builders, you just customize one of their ready-made templates by swapping in your own photos, videos, discount codes, etc.
Most of them have free tiers. But you’ll need to upgrade to access more customization features.
Build Your Own Advent Calendar Template
If you want maximum creative flexibility, build your own fully customizable advent calendar template on a platform like Miro.
You can make each window a clickable frame to hide surprises behind. Miro also supports videos, gifs, images, and text.
So you can build a completely custom virtual advent calendar down to the smallest detail.
The only potential drawback here is that the process is more complex. You’ll need solid design chops to pull off an aesthetically appealing calendar.
Code Your Own Advent Calendar Website
The most advanced option is to code your entire digital advent calendar site from scratch. This involves web development skills.
But the good news is that once your custom coded site is up and running, it will be blazing fast. You can also connect it directly to your database to pull dynamic content.
So if hardcore customization and speed are important to you, coding your calendar is the best route.
Step 2: Plan Out All 25 Days
Once you’ve selected your calendar creation platform, it’s time for the fun part—deciding what to put behind each digital window or door!
Start by coming up with ideas for all 25 days: December 1st through Christmas day on the 25th.
Here are some things you may want to include:
- Photos from past holiday seasons
- DIY gift or treat recipes
- Free shipping or money off discount codes
- Sneak peeks of new upcoming products
- Holiday themed desktop or phone wallpapers
- Ugly sweater styling tips
- Donation links to charities
And lots more. Feel free to get creative!
One idea is to come up with a different theme for each week:
December 1st-7th: Highlight holiday products
December 8th-14th: Share DIY tutorials
December 15th-21st: Offer special deals and discounts
December 22nd-25th: Reflect on past Christmas memories
Just make sure that whatever you include fits with your brand identity. The content should excite both existing and potential new customers.
Step 3. Set Up Your Actual Digital Advent Calendar
With your platform selected and 25 days planned out, it’s time to start building your calendar!
Customize the Design
Most virtual advent calendar builders and templates give you multiple themes to choose from. Select one that matches your brand style guide.
At the very least, make sure to swap in your logo and brand colors. This makes your calendar feel cohesive. Which boosts engagement and shares.
Add Clickable Windows
Now create 25 clickable boxes—one for each day of December leading up to Christmas.
Most advent calendar templates and builders make this process super simple. Usually, it’s as easy as clicking and dragging to add a new window.
For example, in Advent Factory all you need to do is:
- Click “New Window”
- Select a date
- Customize the name (e.g. “Day 1”)
- Click save
That adds a clickable box that you can now embed media behind.
Embed Your Daily Surprises
This is where things get extra fun.
Start uploading and embedding your photos, videos, discount codes and other surprises behind each window.
Most calendar builders support various file types like images, YouTube videos, MP4s, and even PDFs. Some even let you record voice messages.
Make sure that whatever you embed matches up with that day’s planned surprise.
Oh and don’t forget to upload some sort of “cover” image that hides that day’s treat until clicked!
Step 4. Share and Promote Your Virtual Advent Calendar
You did it! Your digital advent calendar is now good to go 🎉
You have a few different options for getting it out there:
- Email. Send out your unique advent calendar URL to subscribers. Consider adding it to your email signature too.
- Social posts. Share your link on social channels daily. Maybe even use each day’s surprise as that day’s post.
- Paid ads. Run some Facebook/Instagram traffic campaigns targeting fans of other holiday advent calendars.
- Influencer marketing. Reach out to nano or micro influencers to see if they will share your calendar with their engaged audiences for free product or a commission.
- Embed on your site. Add your clickable calendar to your blog sidebar or elsewhere on your website.
The key is to use multiple channels to ensure maximum visibility. Share early and share often!
Top Examples of Virtual Advent Calendars
Still not sure what an awesome virtual advent calendar looks like in the wild?
Here are a few stellar examples of brands making the digital December countdown work for them:
1. HarperCollins Children’s Books
The publisher created a superb virtual advent calendar to promote their various children book series.
Each day revealed an exclusive new piece of artwork. As a result, the calendar exploded in popularity. It racked up over 58K pageviews thanks to shares from influential authors.
2. Chelsea Rare Tea Company
This small business launched a unique advent calendar that doubled as an animated Christmas storybook.
Behind each day was a new illustrated page moving the tale along. It also included surprise discount codes for free gifts with purchase.
3. Lush UK
The ethical beauty brand published an advent calendar across their social media channels.
Every day featured either a new bath bomb unboxing video or cute boomerang. The highly shareable content generated 3.4K likes and comments over 24 days on Instagram alone!
Final Thoughts
As you can see, virtual advent calendars are a blast to create. And they offer fantastic marketing and engagement potential.
So what are you waiting for? Start planning your digital Christmas countdown today!
The best part? Other than some creativity and effort on your end, advent calendars cost next to nothing to produce.
Yet they can pay serious dividends when it comes to beefing up your holiday sales, social buzz and email subscriber growth.
Have you built a virtual advent calendar before? I’d love to hear about your experience and any tips in the comments below!